A fantasy of kitchen planning and modernization. With Augusta Roeland and Rege Cordic. Produced by Haford Kerbawy.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: U.S. Steel Company
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Houses and homes: Kitchens; Occupations: Housework

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 5,838 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: doowopbob - - April 16, 2009
Subject: Kitchen Affair....
Not Happy With Bob In The Bedroom (And Those Are Some Cheezo Beds!)....Edie Gets Her Cookies Off In A Sureal Kitchen....With A Strange Man...Then She Goes Back To Bed & Bob Never Hears Her Moaning With Delight On The Squeaky Bedsprings!

Reviewer: Marysz - - May 1, 2004
Subject: Fraudulent Family Life
Edie, a lonely housewife, carries on a nighttime conversation with a disembodied male voice about her dream kitchen in this Jam Handy film. Edie leaves her snoring husband Bob and comes downstairs for milk and cookies (the fifties panacea). But the kitchen has disappeared. Shes on nothing but an empty soundstage. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Relax, Edie, everythings all right, says the hidden narrator. Usually in these films, when the unseen male narrator enters the womans house uninvited with suggestions about her household (which always involve selling her a product), it reflects how little control women have over their private spaces. This film gives it a new twist. Edie is so lonely that her conversations with the narrator have an element of pathos. As Edie and the narrator talk about her dream kitchen, its apparent how desolate Edies life is. We see her working in her kitchen as her family ignores herBob reads the paper and her children play a board game. No one looks at her or offers to help. The kitchen itself is nothing more than a stage set after all, with the cabinets and appliances set up on it. Its surrounded by empty space. We see the same imagery, the fifties family in the stage-set house, in American Look and The Golden Years. These images show how fragile (and isolated) the American family actually is. It also tells the truth about how little real privacy the family hastheyre sitting ducks for every sales pitch that comes along. Edies fate is no different. The male voice turns out to be from US Steel, trying to get her to buy a set of banal steel cabinets. He disappears, but not before leaving her a sales brochure. No wonder Edies still awake at 1:30 am, lying in bed, restlessly dangling a shoe. She should put them on and get away from this scene of sham domesticity.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - March 7, 2004
Subject: "eeeeeeek!"
This film is quite similar to 'Once Upon A honeymoon' where the woman literally dreams of her fantasy kitchen, but it's somewhat less fun (anything would be with the loss of Grover Champion). In this, a insomniac woman goes into her kitchen to find out that it's GONE! Then a disemodied voice goads her into designing her own fantasy kitchen. "But how? I wouldnt know where to begin?" the narrator then tirelessly gives us kitchen options she can choose from (double sinks??? Who woulda thought!) After laying out all these options, ditzy housewife still can't make up her mind about what kind of kitchen she wants, so finally the narrator gives her a pamphlet summarizing what he just said. She then wonders aloud in bed whether the whole thing was a dream or not. She still has the pamphlet... here's a great clue to see if the dream was real. If it was, your kitchen would still be gone hahahahaha.

Reviewer: K.P. Lee - - August 14, 2003
Subject: I dreamed of home improvement!
A very strange film. Poor Edie. Instead of exciting dreams about flying through the air or having passionate sex, Edie dreams about redoing her kitchen. Most of the advice she receives from the disembodied voice in her dream ("it's not really important"?) is sound advice that would be applicable to designing a kitchen today, though many of the steel cabinets and counters would be considered dated. (Of course the counters and cabinets are steel. U.S. Steel is the sponsor.) The fifties-style illustrations are interesting.

The most fascinating aspect of this movie is parade of gender-role expectations that appear in every domestic scene. Edie and her husband Bob sleep in separate beds. While Edie works in the kitchen, Bob and the childen David and Debbie don't contribute at all to the housework. Husband Bob sits there reading a newspaper while Edie scurries around readying a meal and pouring his coffee. The childen are sitting around doing no chores. Not only are Edie's husband and children unhelpful, they even get in the way!

It's a wonder that the Edie's of the era didn't simply murder their families during the 50's. Perhaps the rage that many women probably felt at the time was sublimated into kitchen design.

Shotlist

<BR>